Kirby Wright
Kirby M. Wright (born 1955) is an American poet and fiction writer.Visiting Writers 2009, International Writers Workshop, Hong Kong Baptist University, IWW.HKBU.edu.hk, Web, June 2, 2012. He is best known for his coming of age island novel Punahou Blues and his epic novel Moloka'i Nui Ahina, which is based on the life and times of Wright's paniolo grandmother. Life Youth and education Wright was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to June (McCormick), a secretary at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harold S. Wright, a corporate attorney for the firm Smith Wild BeeBe & Cades. Starting at the age of 4, Wright spent summers with his part-Hawaiian grandmother Julia Gilman on her ranch on the east end of Molokai. It was here Wright met Sophie Cooke, a cattle rancher who wrote the memoir Sincerely, Sophie about her life and times in the islands. This meeting proved influential to the young Wright because Cooke wrote about his grandmother. Evidence of Wright's love for the written word surfaced at Star of the Sea Elementary School in Honolulu, where he crafted and performed plays about vampires, pro wrestlers, and secret agents. He won 1st place in a recital competition for his reading of "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer, and also won awards for his original poems. He transferred to Punahou School in the 7th Grade and won the short story competition. Despite winning the competition, Wright felt like an outsider at Punahou School and his experiences at this private institution will become fertile material for his coming of age novel Punahou Blues. Wright attended the University of Colorado for a semester and transferred to the University of Hawaii (UH) at Manoa. At UH he studied under the tutelage of Maxine Hong Kingston, and met Kurt Vonnegut and Allen Ginsberg. He then transferred to the University of California, San Diego, where he took classes taught by poets Bobbie Louise Hawkins and Jerome Rothenberg, and received a B.A . in English and American literature. Career After graduation, he sold cars for a living at Rancho Olds in Kearny Mesa, then became public relations director for the Carlsbad Inn and San Clemente Cove. Rich and unhappy, he applied to San Francisco State University and was accepted into the Masters program in creative writing by Anne Rice. While at SFSU, he took classes taught by Frances Mayes, Daniel J. Langton, Molly Giles, and Harry Mark Petrakis. He earned an M.F.A. in creative writing. He has been interviewed on Fox Morning News, Art Rocks internet radio in San Diego, and Hawaiian Kine News out of Las Vegas. He is a frequent guest on 50th State Radio, hosted by Uncle Paul Natto and broadcast live over the internet from Las Vegas. Writing Wright's work is primarily concerned with the complexities of multicultural Hawaii, Killahaole Day, prejudices against (and within) island high schools, and the tricky matter of interracial dating. Both novels deal with the racial tensions between haoles (whites) and the indigenous Hawaiians, and illustrate the challenge for characters who, as the product of mixed-race marriages, must try to bridge the two cultures and overcome prejudice from both camps. He incorporates the local creole language into his novels and was the first author to document the pidgin English spoken by the paniolo cowboys on the east end of Molokai. ''Punahou Blues'' The setting for the book (ISBN 0-9741067-1-2) is his high school alma mater, Punahou School. The novel provides a window into the tumultuous 1960's and 1970's in multicultural Honolulu, from the viewpoint of a white (haole) boy narrator searching for identity in a private school. His rite of passage includes losing the girl of his dreams, not living up to his father's great expectations, surviving Killahaole Day, being suspended, sibling rivalry, fighting the school bully, and navigating the tricky waters of interracial dating. Moloka'i Nui Ahina A parallel novel entitled MOLOKA'I NUI AHINA was published in August 2007. The book (ISBN 978-0-9741067-2-4) features the life and times of Julia Daniels, a Moloka'i pioneer woman of mixed blood, who invites her grandsons Jeff and Ben to spend summers with her at her ranch. She shares the land with ex-husband Chipper, an alcoholic war hero with a life estate bordering the swamp. The boys roam a paradise of fishponds, waterfalls, and mountains with herds of deer. Jeff meets the kahuna woman who freezes pictures of her enemies, the transsexual who seduces the Chief of Police, the man who referees cock fights in Kaunakakai, the beautiful divorcee who lives in the saddle room, and the prodigal grandfather who returns to woo Julia. These characters shape Jeff's sensibilities as he learns the secrets of his grandmother's wild past in Honolulu and the intensity of her struggles on the Lonely Isle. Recognition While a graduate student, Wright was the first student in the history of SFSU to win all 3 of the university's poetry awards: the Academy of American Poets Award, Browning Society Award for Dramatic Monologue, and Ann Fields Poetry Prize. Wright has also been nominated for 2 Pushcart Prizes, and is a past recipient of the Jodi Stutz Memorial Prize in Poetry, the San Diego Book Award, and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowships in Poetry and The Novel. Before the City, his first book of poetry, took first place at the San Diego Book Awards. Punahou Blues was a finalist at the San Diego Book Awards and an honorable mention at the Hawai'i Book Awards. Wright is in the 2010 edition of Who's Who in America and was listed in the 2007 edition of Who's Who in the World. He won a Visiting Writer post at the 2009 International Writers Conference in Hong Kong, where he joined fellow US poet Gary Snyder as well as Pacific Rim colleagues Young-Ha Kim (Korea), Bi Feiyu (China), Atsushi Shiitada (Okinawa), Wena Poon (Singapore), Chen Li (Taiwan), Miguel Syjuco (Philippines) and Janet Charman (New Zealand). He represented the Pacific Rim region of Hawaii at the conference. Wright also won a Visiting Writer post at the 2010 Martha's Vineyard Writers Residency in Edgartown, Mass., and was the 2011 artist in residence at Milkwood International, Czech Republic. Publications Poetry *''Champagne Eyes: Poetry and prose'' (with Kurt Vonnegut). San Diego, CA: Heebie-Jeebie Press, 1986. *''Life Extension''. Green Turtle Press Chapbooks, 2002. *''Before the City: Collected poems & prose poems''. San Diego, CA: Lemon Shark Press, 2003. ISBN 0-9741067-0-4 *''Moloka'i nui ahina: Summers on the lonely isle''. San Diego, CA: Lemon Shark Press, 2007. *''The Widow from Lake Bled: Selected poems''. Westbrook, ME: Moon Pie Press. 2013. *''Notes Above Water: Selected poems''. San Diego, CA: Lemon Shark Press, 2014. Short fiction *''Square Dancing at the Asylum: Nouveau noir flash fiction''. San Diego, CA: Lemon Shark Press, 2013. *''The End, My Friend: Prelude to the apocalypse''. San Diego, CA: Lemon Shark Press, 2014. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Kirby Wright], OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Dec. 20, 2015. See also * List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems *"The Clouds Build Mountains" *"Message from Hong Kong" *"Tiki Gods and the Antherium Mountain" ;Fiction *"The British War Medal" *"Moloka'i Nui Ahina", Cortland Review. *"The Night of Puanani" ;Books *Kirby M. Wright at Amazon.com ;About *Kirby Wright at Poets & Writers *Kirby Wright profile at Smashwords *profile at Writers.net. *Profile and interview, Connotation Press. *Hawaii, Mortuaries, and Saving Kurt Vonnegut: An Interview with Kirby Wright at Great Weather for Media, 2013 * Interview with Kirby Wright, Harpur Palate. * Jennifer Schomberg, Coming of Age: Hawai'ian culture in Kirby Wright's fiction (thesis) ;Reviews *[http://www.curledup.com/punahoub.htm Review of Punahou Blues]. *[http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art43886.asp Review of Punahou Blues]. *[http://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2006/2006_01_04.kirby04.shtml Review of Punahou Blues]. *[http://www.hawaiibookblog.com/articles/book-review-punahou-blues/ Review of Punahou Blues]. * [http://archives.starbulletin.com/2007/09/09/features/story04.html Review of Moloka'i Ni Ahuna]. *"Nostalgia pieces" - Review of Moloka'i Ni Ahuna. Category:American novelists Category:Writers from Hawaii Category:Native Hawaiian writers Category:American poets Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Punahou School alumni Category:University of California, San Diego alumni Category:University of Colorado alumni Category:University of Hawaii alumni Category:San Francisco State University alumni Category:21st-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets